Back to the team…
Meet Lindsey Nelson
Human Resources & Executive Assistant
Lindsey has been with The Other Side Academy since 2017, serving as a 1-person HR Department and Executive Assistant for the Leadership Team. She co-created and leads the Financial Success Program for graduates.
Lindsey was a driven, high achieving, straight-A student and professional ballerina. Seeking an escape from the strict discipline and unrelenting pressure in her life, she started using drugs. Drugs helped her cope so well that from the very start she was unwilling to go without them. They became more important than anything else in her life. She walked away from the life she’d worked so hard for and descended into a fifteen-year spiral of addiction. Her values, integrity, and self-worth were drowned in the chaos her life had become. She suffered from seizures and serious illness caused by drugs and alcohol, as well as an opioid overdose, from which only naloxone could bring her back.This would have gone on until her premature demise, except one day she woke up and decided to reclaim her life.
She found a program called The John Volken Academy, a two-year therapeutic community modeled after Delancey Street. She had to leave her child and family behind and go to Canada, but she was willing to make the sacrifice to get her life back. Completing that program was one of the hardest things she has ever done, but by far the most worthwhile. Those two years transformed her. She learned the power of ownership and accountability and rediscovered the values and integrity she had lost so long ago. Having experienced the life-changing capacity of the therapeutic community model, she knew she had to stay connected and give back. After graduating from The John Volken Academy, she came straight to The Other Side Academy to help carry on this important work of saving lives.
Lindsey graduated from Utah Valley University and has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication. She enjoys running marathons, canyoneering, and conquering mountain peaks. She’s not very good at surfing, but she certainly likes trying.